I made a donation,please help me!!!!!

Jun 5, 2007

Dear Dr Frascino, I asked a question before, but I didn't get a respond. I am a male 22 years old. I met someone on april 1, another male, and we had oral sex. I have bleeding gums, but he told me he was hiv negative. He sucked me and returned the favor too. On the Third week of april, I began to have muscle ache in my arms and a low grade fever, also I was constipated. on May 3, I woke up at in the middle of the night with diarrhea, fever, muscle ache. After 5 days, my fever was around 100 F, and I still had diarrhea, when I swallowed my ears popped, and my neck was stiffed, and my right ear bothered me so I began pulling it. I didn't experienced a rash, or vommit or nausea or a cough either I had a stuffy nose, and oral thrush as well. on May 17, all my symptoms was gone, except for the diarrhea, I had it almost the entire month. I got tested for HIV on May 8, and it was negative, its been almost 9 weeks and i'm really scared I cought HIV from this guy through oral sex. I'm so scared, i'm afraid I might be infected with HIV, I thought about committing suicide, because I didn't see any other solution. Please help me out. I didn't want to tell my doctor I suspected it was HIV and I wanted to get a p24 test to see if they can find any hiv enzymes or something. I have done so much research about HIV and the more I read, the more I am convinced I am positive. I cry every day, at home, work, everywhere, and its affecting my social life as well, I don't even speak to my friends, i'm really depressed, and I don't know what happened to me. Do you think I experience an HIV infection? or those symptoms are related to another STD or disease? Please help me, I need to hear some asnwers from a professional like yourself. I've read so many articles and I can't find a clear answer to my symptoms. I made a donation for $40 because I believe in making a difference in helping those who are in need. Thank you Doc, hope to hear from you.

Response from Dr. Frascino

Hello,

Oral sex carries a very low risk for HIV transmission. Your level of worry far exceeds any real risk, even with bleeding gums!

Symptoms, no matter what they are, do not equal HIV disease. In fact, symptoms are notoriously unreliable in predicting who is and is not infected! Stop symptom-surfing the Web. Rather, spend your time reading through the archives of this forum. You should find the information their enlightening and reassuring.

I would also suggest you get mental health counseling to help with your irrational HIV fears, depression, stress, anxiety and thoughts of suicide.

HIV testing should be done at the three-month mark. The odds you did not contract HIV are all in your favor!

This forum is designed for educational purposes only, and experts are not rendering medical, mental health, legal or other professional advice or services. If you have or suspect you may have a medical, mental health, legal or other problem that requires advice, consult your own caregiver, attorney or other qualified professional.

Experts appearing on this page are independent and are solely responsible for editing and fact-checking their material. Neither TheBody.com nor any advertiser is the publisher or speaker of posted visitors' questions or the experts' material.

The Body is a service of Remedy Health Media, LLC, 750 3rd Avenue, 6th Floor, New York, NY 10017. The Body and its logos are trademarks of Remedy Health Media, LLC, and its subsidiaries, which owns the copyright of The Body's homepage, topic pages, page designs and HTML code. General Disclaimer: The Body is designed for educational purposes only and is not engaged in rendering medical advice or professional services. The information provided through The Body should not be used for diagnosing or treating a health problem or a disease. It is not a substitute for professional care. If you have or suspect you may have a health problem, consult your health care provider.